Telecoms giant MTN and Microsoft have signed a “strategic alliance agreement” which the companies hope will accelerate digital and cloud transformation.
This was announced by MTN Group President and CEO Ralph Mupita when he presented the group’s third quarter results on Friday.
He said the agreement would help to enable MTN’s strategic priority of supporting governments, customers and businesses of all sizes using the versatility of Microsoft platforms, solutions and capabilities to accelerate value creation.
“It centres on transforming and modernising MTN’s communications and technology infrastructure, along with harnessing both organisations’ capabilities, to build the largest and most valuable platform business with a clear focus on Africa. In addition, the parties will also execute a carrier agreement which will position MTN as a major provider of terrestrial connectivity to support Microsoft’s Africa-based expansion plans,” he said.
The group’s results for the quarter ended September presented a mix bag of results in the different regions in trades in. In its domestic market, service revenue grew by just 3.5%, impacted by loadshedding and concessions to support the Cell C recapitalisation.
Mupita said MTN SA results “was delivered against a backdrop of high inflation, rising interest rates, unemployment, as well as unprecedented levels of loadshedding, which negatively impacted the overall network availability and some business functions. Despite this tough environment, in which inflation rose to 7.5% by September 2022 (from 5.7% in
January 2022), MTN SA’s focus on commercial and operational execution, helped to drive further market share gains which underpinned a solid overall performance.”
The group also expects the macroeconomic pressures experienced in the third quarter – including loadshedding, inflation, deteriorating exchange rates and rising interest rates – are expected to continue straining consumer spending, thus impacting performance in the fourth quarter.
MTN’s biggest market Nigeria saw service revenue surge 20.7% while MTN Uganda recorded a growth of 14.7%.
MTN Rwanda registered a robust growth in service revenues of 21.4%, while MTN Ghana surged 26.1% and MTN Côte d’Ivoire came under pressure with growth of just 5.3% in the quarter.
MTN Sudan increased service revenue by 159% and the group’s Cameroon operations grew its revenues by 6.1%. The group saw its subscriber base increase 6.8% to 284.9 million at the end of the quarter under review.
Mupita said despite the near-term uncertainties in our operating environment, the company is confident that the structurally higher demand for data and fintech services is intact, supporting its medium-term growth outlook.
“With South Africa’s on-grid power likely to remain constrained, MTN SA’s resilience plan will alleviate some of the impacts on network availability and other business functions in that market. The focus in Nigeria will be on the coverage and capacity of the network to accommodate rising demand for data and expand rural coverage and home broadband,” he said.
For more business news from Sunday World, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here
